Hey, hey, hey, it’s great to see some "new" faces on the course. But I must add that you folks sure picked a tough race to come back to. Welcome back to Cassie, Sarah, Wendy, and Bear. As the entries relate, this is one of the harder races as the conditions are HOT, still, long, flat for most of it… At least this year no one dropped out due to dehydration. Only one broken ama, it was sad to watch John Flint being towed in. You know how that is, train hard, eat right, abstain (I didn’t say from what), and to have an equipment damaged, it’s disheartening.

Now for the winners, and we are all winners, it was GREAT. What do I mean great? It was Great to finish so well in the standings. For Wally Bouchard on Kayak it was his first win of the season. For Deb and Vinney it was their first overall win of the season. For Derek Vinuya on OC-1 it was his 4^th consecutive win of the season and of this race. CONGRATULATIONS!

For others it was great to get to the finish line, yeah it’s over, ‘nuff already. (that’s how I felt). Actually it was a good race for me because I went OC-2 for the first time this season. Let me just say, OC-2 is so much more fun! Although I have heard reports that some of the OC-2 crews actually grumble with each other and get a bit tense at times, emotions run high. I think competition brings out that animal in all of us, we all want to do well. What can I say? Teamwork requires, well, TEAMWORK. Once on land we can all talk and hopefully laugh about it as well as learn from each time we go out. I think Ricky and I were running 5^th OC-2 and almost 6^th at the buoy. The male duo of Mike and Barry were in 2^nd, Greg and Mike in 3^rd, the Bartos in 4^th, us, with Kurt and Linda right there. I thought to my self, oh no this is going to be a long race. Once we settled down and got into a good rhythm we started to move. When we passed Doc I remembered how he and Bear drafted off of us during this race last year and then after a nice long ride passed us. When we passed Bear this year he asked if he could hitch a ride again, FORGET IT! Sorry Bear. We came from behind to finish third OC-2 & 2^nd co-ed; Mike and Greg finished 2^nd male, the Barto’s, Eric and Tamara were next as the 3^rd co-ed followed by Kurt and Linda and Jocelyn and Lani.

For many others it was a great race in the sense that they had a race all the way to the finish. Rory Frampton and JP battled to the end. Margie and Theresa were pushing each other all the way through. Allen, Mike & Greg, Keola, Peter, Steve, Doc and Bram all finished within 41 seconds. That’s a nice little pack to run the entire race with. Catching one another, pushing forward. Another pack was Kurt & Linda, Reggie, Tim, Dave, Jeff, Dennis and Bear. They came in together within 1.05 min. As a paddler you know how much harder you paddle when company surrounds you.

As for the short course. Lauren dominated that field. She finished 8 minutes ahead of the 2^nd place finisher. What follows are corrections to the placing and finish in the short course. The entire Novice stand as awarded, Thomas Kern 1^st, Ryan Watanabe 2^nd, and Jeff Harman 3^rd. We failed to recognize the short course open winners. Mike Tihada 1^st, Chris Facuri 2^nd, Roy Anderson 3^rd. Congratulations and thanks for racing. We had 12 entries in this week’s short course.

Mahalo to the Whitford `ohana and Malama Ula Canoe Club for preparing our ono food and setting up the banners, flag and post race festivities. Mahalo to Maui Coffee Co. for the generous, great smelling, donation of coffee. Each participant who received a bag is most grateful. The continued support from Corona, Hansen Drinks and Maui Fiberglass is truly appreciated. 

Ricky and I were talking after the race and he commented how each canoe club is represented this year. Napili, Hawaiian, & Malama Ula have the greatest representation and the longest history of participation in the MCKC. But this year… The Lahaina women are out in force along with their President and coach (Spud & Kirk), Kahana has the gang and the trailer, and they sure are organized. In addition to Karen Evans, Kihei has some new energy in their kane participants. Kurt and Linda from Na Kai Ewalu now join Beth Moyers. Lae`ula O Kai has some new blood on the course with Jocelyn, Lani and Wendall. AND coming in from HANA is Bob Getzen & Grant Senner and from MOLOKA`I the Kalama’s. Of course there are participants who paddle only 1 man or Kayak and not with a club. Welcome one and all. (if I left your name out I’m sorry. Come & talk with me at the beach…)

I don’t know about the guys in front but I was sure wishing for some tail breeze, waves and currents to ride, a rain shower, a whale to breech close by, some wake from the official boat, an icy cold Corona or Hansen Energy drink, something, anything to get me to the finish line faster. But, yes, I did it on my own, as did everyone else. It is exciting to see and to later hear of the stories from the water.

Let’s see. The Kayakers all pushed hard through the finish line being that the top 4 finished within 27 seconds of each other, that’s got to be tough. ( Bogar, Raphael, Kimo & Wally) Welcome back to Kimo. Kai and Jeff also raced right through for the Tug Boat division finishing 36^th and 37^th respectively and separated by 8 seconds. 2 others from that division raced on the short course in the open division, Mike Tihada and Walter Vierra. (they were 3^rd and 4^th respectively). Finishing ahead of them were Randall Saulsbury (2^nd) and Rich Olson (1^st). Yes that is right, Rich raced on the short course. He justified it by saying it was his first race of the season… Let me just say that it was Theresa Felgate’s first race of the season and she did the LONG course. Seriously though, thank you Rich because we want people to race the short course instead of not at all. (just to clarify… short course divisions are paddleboard, NOVICE and OPEN. Open means anybody who is not novice)

Marge Kawaiaea continues her reign on Maui finishing 49^th over all at 1:22.53 and first wahine. Her closest rival is T. Felgate at 51^st and 1:24.01 and Karen Evans in at 53^rd and 1:27.07. Another undefeated title goes to Deb and Vince Robinson who clocked in at 1:09:47 and 3^rd overall for the OC-2 and Derek Vinuya at 1:10.50 and 8^th overall for the OC-1 men.

Yes we did consolidate some of the divisions for the women OC-1 and Kayak and the men Kayak. The biggest reclassification is in the Women Kayak from all divisions to just one (elite). Elizabeth wasn’t here this week so Lauren needs some competition, besides the men. The OC-1 Women and Kayak Men did not have enough participants for all the divisions so we consolidated them. (there are supposed to be at least 3 for each division)

Next race is the Makena race. Registration is at Hayacraft from 8:30a.m. The short course is 3 miles shorter than the long and starts at Suda store (Ka Lae Pohaku). Please come and register as early as possible (Spud and Kirk) so that the officials can be set and accurate in the counts and not rushing at the last minute. We do want everybody to race. SO help us to help you to make the races as good and fair as possible.

MAHALO to Maui Brews for making and trucking in the refreshments. We all appreciate it. Mahalo to Maui Fiberglass for getting the event shirts to the beach and agreeing to make more in the smaller sizes. Our officials, MAHALO, MAHALO, MAHALO. And finally thank you racers for the fair start! GREAT JOB!

LEILANI'S TRIANGLE RACE
2001

The Maui Canoe and Kayak "Hurricane Ocean Racing Series" sure is exciting and a lot of fun! The ono grinds at and by Leilani’s on The Beach complimented by thirst quenching Coronas and Energy drink (donated by Coronas) sure hit the spot after that long hot paddle.

O.K. so something about the actual race it self.

Being it was the first oc-1 race I have ever done… I found myself thinking of reasons (excuses) of why I should go into the beach ½ way through the race instead of finishing it all. Does anybody else think this? What a relief to catch the bumps back from the Mahana buoy when I actually passed 3 men, only to hit the flat calm waters of Lahaina and the wall that comes along with it, and 2 of them passed me back. Lucky for me I started going by all the leaders (they were headed home, I was headed to the Post office buoy) because seeing them gave me a lift, oh yeah, I feel good, lets go to Puamana and back (yeah right). Thank you for all the encouragement.

Welcome back to Jeff Bougar, who kicked butt and finished under an hour even though he was headed for the Chart House buoy. Derek and Raphael were battling it out for 2^nd overall, Derek was victorious. Then there was that battle for 1^st oc-2. From what I hear Spud and Kirk had the lead until Vinny and Deb kicked into high gear coming back from the 2^nd turn and just nosed them at the finish line. (As a matter of information, Spud, Kirk and Greg Heneghan stepped off of the Hokule`a earlier that morning. They were part of the crew that brought Hokule`a to Maui. There were also 2 representatives from Kahana C.C. and 1 more from Napili). Back to the race… speaking of Greg H., he felt redeemed as he did not let Lani and Jocelyn beat him on the oc-2, like last week.

Elizabeth Lantz is back and so now there is competition in the women’s kayak division, Lauren Spalding has won this race 2 weekends in a row. Lahaina C.C.’s women are out in force this year. It is great to have them all on the course. Coming in 3^rd in the Novice was Kristi Fallon in 1:43:08. (we failed to recognize her efforts at the awards ceremony). We all know Kawika Wiliiams, well you may not know that his brother, Steve Williams entered and won the Novice Kayak division. Everyone also knows Jacob Abeytia; he came in fourth in the OC-1 by .53 hundredths of a second to Big T. Why wasn’t Jacob in the top 3 like last week? Because welcome back JB Guard who finished .51 in front of Big T. (what a close race!) Speaking of close races, Marge was the first woman to cross the line in an OC-1. Did I say speaking of close races? Yeah right, I was second to her, saw her get smaller and smaller, by about 4 minutes (not so close). Karen Evans, who just made it to the start of the race, was 3^rd.

Anyway, it was FUN, thank you to all for the kokua with registration/timing/results (Char, Sam, Gail, Rosela, & Polohiwa) thank you to our sponsors (we should have our tee shirts at the next race thanks to Maui Fiberglass) and to our leaders – Ricky and Raphael. Also a big MAHALO to Sam Millington who has volunteered to be the treasurer.

See you at Kihei for the Pali race….Sharon